


Five stories Sharon Agathon liked to tell (and what she thought they meant)

by deborah_judge



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Mythology - Freeform, Religious Themes & References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-15
Updated: 2011-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-16 23:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deborah_judge/pseuds/deborah_judge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humans tell stories about the gods, but Sharon knows what they mean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five stories Sharon Agathon liked to tell (and what she thought they meant)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucidSeraph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidSeraph/gifts).



1\. Hera

In the beginning was the void, the human stories said, and the chaos had a name. Out of the void came the First Ones, Phanes and Phusis, Anake and Chronos. They are still among us and even their descendants, the ones who were later called the Lord of Kobol, even they did not defeat them.

It is more than your parents who create you, Sharon understood. She remembered the Centurions from her childhood, their bright surfaces shining as they held her in the sun. And still there was another creator. Her brother said it was God.

2\. Gaia

Before the Lords of Kobol came there were other gods, the stories said, and they too were Twelve. Oceanus and Hyperion, Phoebe and Mnemosyne, their brothers and sisters, they once too were defeated by the Lords who came after. Lord Zeus, Lady Hera, Lord Apollo, Lady Aphrodite, these gods themselves once stood on the dead bodies of their ancestors and from that place built Earth.

The ancients were philosophers, Sharon knew. They must have intuited the truth of the One God even though their beliefs were false, and they used these stories to teach a lesson.

Change required death, Sharon thought. It required destruction. Even the humans knew that.

3\. Adonis

The Lady Aphrodite once loved a beautiful youth. She fought over him with her sister but he was hers, he could only be hers, and in the end when he died it was Aphrodite's arms into which Adonis fell. She mixed his blood with nectar and from these drops flowers grew.

Love changes you, Sharon knew. Not just your mind and your soul, that was obvious, but even your body and your shape. Perhaps, Sharon sometimes thought, even your species.

4\. The Hidden Lady

Astarte was the name of the evening star, the last light before night falls. It was also the name of a great Lady. When her people were endangered she disguised herself, married the king, and by her wiles convinced him to save them. It is said that she may have been a Lord of Kobol in disguise.

Sometimes you need to disguise yourself, Sharon knew. Sometimes you need to hide the light and hope that morning will come.

5\. Echo

When the nymph Echo lost her love she wandered, singing. She wasted away in longing until nothing was left but her voice. Still her voice remained. Her voice at least endured. In the stories, it is said that it still does.

Sometimes, Sharon thought, you become the stories you tell. This planet called Earth would be the place where they would begin. She would tell the old stories and let her daughter Hera begin again.

  
The goddess Astarte, as imagined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Her name is related to that of Esther. Image taken from here:  
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astarte_Syriaca.jpg  
Happy Purim!


End file.
